2007-08: The music, the artists, the concerts
By Matthew Heil
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
For all of our patrons looking for information about The Phoenix Symphony's upcoming season, the information is here! We're celebrating our 60th Anniversary Season, with great concerts and activites throughout the year. Some highlights:
Our Composer Spotlights for this season will be Johannes Brahms; Leonard Bernstein and Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. Look for their works to be featured at concerts across our Classics, Pops and Family Series.
Also, to mark this important anniversary, the Symphony has commissioned a new work by compser Mark Grey, Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio. The world-premiere of this piece, based on Navajo legends, will happen in February 2008. In addition to a haunting score, there will be a libretto by ASU professor and poet Laura Tohe. Look for more information about associated events and programs as the concert approaches!
Among the many guest artist for next season are pianist Leon Fleisher, soprano Dawn Upshaw, Broadway star Bernadette Peters, double bassist Edgar Meyer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch. It promises to be an exciting year, and I hope you'll join us!
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
For all of our patrons looking for information about The Phoenix Symphony's upcoming season, the information is here! We're celebrating our 60th Anniversary Season, with great concerts and activites throughout the year. Some highlights:
Our Composer Spotlights for this season will be Johannes Brahms; Leonard Bernstein and Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. Look for their works to be featured at concerts across our Classics, Pops and Family Series.
Also, to mark this important anniversary, the Symphony has commissioned a new work by compser Mark Grey, Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio. The world-premiere of this piece, based on Navajo legends, will happen in February 2008. In addition to a haunting score, there will be a libretto by ASU professor and poet Laura Tohe. Look for more information about associated events and programs as the concert approaches!
Among the many guest artist for next season are pianist Leon Fleisher, soprano Dawn Upshaw, Broadway star Bernadette Peters, double bassist Edgar Meyer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch. It promises to be an exciting year, and I hope you'll join us!
14 Comments:
Marin Alsop has announced a remarkable inaugural season with the Baltimore Symphony, giving notice that the orchestra is ready to take its place among such pace-setting American ensembles as LA, San Francisco, Minnesota, Atlanta, and St. Louis. There's a contemporary piece on almost every program, and no fewer than five composers have been invited to conduct their work on regular subscription programs: John Adams, Tan Dun, HK Gruber, James MacMillan, and Thomas Adès. The notion of the composer as celebrity soloist is an LA innovation, but Baltimore is taking it up in an especially vigorous way. Aaron Jay Kernis, Steven Mackey, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and Joan Tower are also featured. And tickets are cheap. With the aid of a $1 million grant, the orchestra is asking $25 for all subscription seats.
Sonny the Cat - be sure to check out Golijov's CD "Ayre" with Dawn Upshaw. Also has some Berio on it. Beautiful songs with a folk influence. Also check out his opera "Aindamar" recorded by Atlanta. I had the pleasure of seeing it at the Santa Fe Opera in 2005 and found it engaging. Some people love it, others hate it, but it is definately worth a listen.
This is from Cincinnati. How does it compare to our next season?
Cincinnati Announces 2007-08 Season
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I'm glad that the general concensus is positive for our 2007/2008 season.
What I see as an interesting indicator of the relative success of our planning thus far is that my fellow bloggers are comparing us with orchestras of far greater means and more established national position. I don't see this is a pat on the back as much as a sign that the sophistication of our audience is a force to be reckoned with.
I think one of the reasons Marin Alsop is going the way she is in Baltimore is the fact that she developed this programming profile in Denver. I'm becoming convinced that overall it's the "regional" orchestras that are going to shape the future of live symphonic music performances for the time being. For the moment orchestras in Denver, Phoenix and Nashville among other qualify for this status. This isn't a bad marker though. These "regional" cities are exploding and the resulting metropolis draws in the young and the older alike to us.
The top ten orchestras have the muscle to copy our ideas and add lots of bells and whistles but realistically we aren't in an industry that have orchestras competing for the same local audience base. What's the harm in sharing success with our friends?!
I feel like we are making significant and relatively rapid strides. Keep pushing us, it keeps us honest and sharp.
I've been attending Phx Sym concerts since 1970, and the programming for 2007/8 leaves me with one big "ho-hum". Been there - done that. ANOTHER Brahms year? I hoped that when the former music director left, that maybe Brahms would be put on the shelf and given a rest. But no, you're going to bore us again. Nothing against Brahms, but it's so over-done and M Christie is no Brahmsian.
And, oh, look: how original. Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky. This programming stinks. There's no originality, no compelling reason to attend anything.
When are orchestras going to wake up and realize that they must move the programming era up. Where are the symphonies of Sibelius and Elgar? Only one Mahler, and the 5th -- AGAIN!!!!! Where's 6, 7, or 10? Or Das Lied? Is Phoenix ever going to hear Bax, Balakirev, Schmidt, Nielsen, Vaughan Williams?
Why not give people all over a real reason to come? Why not do the complete, uncut Gliere "Ilya Murometz", which has never been done in Arizona. Or the Mahler 10th in Cooke's version? Or Franz Schmidt's stunning "The Book with Seven Seals"? Or even the Schoenberg arrangement of the Brahms' g-minor quartet? Why do we get the same stuff year after year? Oh boy, Tchaikovsky 4 & 5! Haven't heard those enough. Where's Manfred?
I'm not excited enough by any concert next season to make me block out an evening to go. Too bad. I'll keep traveling to LA, Tucson, Philadelphia, St. Louis and elsewhere for my orchestral fixes.
Okay, I goofed. We're getting Nielsen 4. That's good.
But you know, we just went through the insane Mozart year. Mozart, Mozart, Mozart! I'm sick and tired of it. Give it a rest -- for at least 20 years!!!!! Criminy, there's more to music than the Viennese masters.
Perhaps the person who has posted the last two messages has been putting the offerings of many orchestras together in his/her mind. Even during the Mozart year the Phoenix Symphony did nothing like most others did. The most works done weren't even heard at Symphony Hall that year. As for Brahms, if you don't like it you don't have to come. As a matter of fact you can catch most of our concerts without hearing a note of Brahms. That goes for Tchaikovsky as well.
I think you have supplied a number of wonderful works that I would be more than happy to consider for future seasons but your assertion that our programming is "been there - done that" is not based on fact. The orchestra has never performed the complete Daphnis. Neither suite has been done in more than 20 years. I could go on about the Navajo Oratorio or Oswaldo Golijov to further make my point.
Since you've been coming to the PSO for such a long time and suggest that you have other experience with more established orchestras surely you can see the merit of planning works that will help us achieve the level of the others you mention. Mozart has to be there as do Brahms, Mahler and Tchaikovsky. Although you may be disappointed about a piece here or there I am looking at a much longer time horizon for the development of the orchestra.
I agree that Sibelius and Elgar need to be included but I would reassure you that we are indeed looking toward more recent programming eras throughout the season. We do have works representing the era you seem to be most fond of, Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, Nielsen, Khachaturian, although I'm sorry they don't include the composers you clearly prefer this time around.
I find it hard to believe that there isn't one concert you'll be planning to attend but I hope you enjoy those that you do in the cities of your choice.
Hopefully, what we program in 08/09 will be more to your liking.
Your list is interesting but a few of the works you list haven't been played by the Phoenix Symphony in quite some time.
What do you have against Rossini's overtures?! :)
Everything is perspective.
I moved to Phoenix a year ago from a small city very proud of its high quality symphony. I knew I would have some regrets, but “big-city” opportunities would be exciting, too.
Actually, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, and that was just when I looked at the 2006-07 PSO season schedule. First was Alexander Kobrin, a gorgeous pianist, who had become a hero at the 2005 Van Cliburn competition. The season also had FOUR guests on my “at-least-once-before-you-die” list: James Galway, Midori, Stephen Hough and Pinchas Zukermann (I missed on YoYo Ma – bah!). Carlos Miguel Prieto’s appearance was everything the last performance I’d heard him conduct had been. If anyone reading this is not armed with a ticket to hear Benedetto Lupo, get one now. He’s fantastic. I hope we won’t have to wait too long for Hough, Kobrin, Lupo and Prieto to return.
Nothing was going to live up to 2006-07, but 2007-08 offers a lot. Young pianists play standards for unholy reasons, but my money says Simon Trpceski will make Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto sound new. After the violin concerto he composed for Hilary Hahn, I am anxious to hear Edgar Meyer perform his compositions for himself. Both Spencer Myer and William Wolfram have been on my list to catch.
Hooray for more Shostakovich! He’s a tough nut for me to crack. When I wanted to read William Faulkner, I had to go back to the literary basics and get a running start at him, but the benefit was the richness of his work. I've needed the same thing musically for Shostakovich, and even after some outside-the-hall study, I'm glad of a few more performances this season!
I'm looking forward to many other pieces on the list. I am very interested in the Mark Grey works and the Schubert. Most of the ballet, opera and film music is new to me, which is great. I’m also a violinist, and Robert Schumann is my favorite composer. Need I say more?
Bluntly, wondering why symphonies program Brahms and Mozart is like wondering why Shakespeare and Dickens endure: they are the best. I would be concerned if we were being deprived. I question for other reasons Joyce Yang performing Mozart’s 20th piano concerto, and the Maestro proceeds at his own risk, but the piece itself can’t be heard often enough.
When I saw “Sibelius, Elgar and Vaughn Williams,” I knew “traveling to Tucson” was coming. All three composers, but not the specific works named, featured in that symphony’s 2006-07 season. Even so, being irritated with Michael Christie in 2007 for not programming works you wish George Hanson had programmed in 2006 does not make sense to me.
Classical music enthusiasts in small towns clearly think differently. We learn to be open to what is available. Maybe we are lucky, because openness seems like the door to music’s truths. My observation is that knowledge and experience may increase openness, but emotional maturity, enthusiasm, desire, etc. matter too. The listener has more control than she knows. Some are more candid about this than others: a person who only likes country music will be unashamed about not getting the long-haired stuff. The sophisticated just blame everyone but themselves.
After following Schumann-mad pianists all over the country, I am still frustrated I have never heard Kreisleriana live, but I thought I was tremendously lucky when the season before I moved, my home town orchestra performed the Rhenish Symphony. It never occurred to me to complain that our Maestro had not hired a pianist for an intermission recital of Kreisleriana and other Schumann works. One can be impossible to please! I admire Maestro Christie for his patience. Perpetual snitting saps the energies of too many who take risks with their ideas and creative talents for the greater good. I’d rather wait for Kreisleriana.
Having said all that, Maestro, if a potential guest artist was burning play Samuel Barber’s violin concerto, I would promise to clear my schedule . . . .
Sonny was very impressed with Maestro Christie's individualistic interpretation and the energy he conveyed to the orchestra in Schubert's Symphony No. 2. It leaves one craving for more Schubertides. So here's another suggestion for a future season.
Composer Narrative: Franz Schubert.
Huge repertoire despite his early demise. Symphonies, Rosamunde Ballet music, Konzertstück for Violin in D major, Marche Militaire No. 1, Gesang der Geister über den Wassern for male voices & strings, Mass No. 6, etc. The American Symphony in New York did a week-long Schubert Festival in the 1970's. Presented all-evening affairs that began with a major piece of chamber music, followed by a full-length orchestral/choral concert, and ended at midnight with lieder.
Methinks Sonny should work as Maestro Christie's right "paw" man!
Maestro -- Kudos on the Schubert/Strauss concert this weekend. I wanted to attend the lunch after the Friday performance to hear what you would have to say, but I did not think I was as interested in the concert program. I toyed with just going to the lunch, but I'm so glad I didn't. There's a lot of very serious and even somewhat depressing classical music out there -- and I think most of it's great. Too often I forget about the more positive side, thinking it's light or whatever just because it's positive. Well, Strauss is, but the whole thing worked for me. After a tough work week, it put me in a terrific mood.
I may try to make more of those Friday performances, especially during weeks where a full Thursday or Saturday concert would be tough.
I want to echo Sonny's thoughts about Schubert, though I suspect that you are starting to program enough of him that in 2008-09 or whenever, it might be hard to be truly new. Anyway, I'm enjoying what you are doing. Schubert's symphonic works have really not been on my radar screen -- surprising given Schumann's interest in him -- and I am certainly going to be looking for more and keeping my eyes open for what the Phoenix Symphony performs.
Speaking of Schubert. I'm sure you have your own connections and agendas about guest artists, but I'm a huge supporter of young artists, particularly young pianists, and I have a really serious recommendation. I know it's going to seem like it's coming out of left field, if it isn't just completely crazy given that you don't know me from Adam, but tonight is the night.
He is Roberto Plano, and if juries have ears, he would have won the silver medal at the 2005 Cliburn competition. This is no slap at Joyce Yang -- I was there and called her winning silver. Unfortunately, Roberto was suffering from a severely leaking disc for which he had surgery immediately following the competition. His doctors had actually asked him to drop out of the competition, it was so bad, but he wanted to try. He won the audience with a fantastic semifinal recital that many think was the moment of the competition, but he did not have all the gas he needed for the horrendously challenging final round.
But he's all right now! Oh, my! Many people at the competition, me included, thought he was every bit Alexander Kobrin's equal in many, many ways. I just got back from his recital in Scottsdale and he was not just better than in Fort Worth, but he had taken ten leaps forward, artistically, technically, in repertoire, everything. I was gaping, as was the rest of the audience -- when they were not shouting bravo after every piece. I have heard Alexander play many times, twice in Phoenix -- and I am a huge fan -- but if we redid that competition, I'm no longer sure we'd get the same result.
You would expect Roberto to have more outright competition wins for his quality, but I think the explanation is simple: he plays in competition exactly as he does in a normal performance, and he rarely has a connection on the jury. I'm sure you understand that you give up something at the margins for both. Nevertheless, he's been in a ton of finals, won a lot of prizes, including 1st at Cleveland and out of that, he's got this stealth American career that he's built by being utterly reliable, easy to get along with, and on time and dressed to play without question. Here's a guy who does hourlong radio programs with ease in English; he would be great in all of your promotional activities. Bottom line: He would be a total steal for a quality symphony looking to bring in a reliable and interesting young artist to balance out the stars in the guest budget, and after years of playing with smaller market groups, he is ready to appear with symphonies such as ours. Bluntly, he's playing above his resume right now.
He's a friend, but I was glad to see and hear how well things were going. Someday I'll meet you and nag you about it, but when I do, I'll be pretty sure I'm doing more than Roberto a favor.
Can someone please help me...unless I was dreaming, or more likely having a nightmare, did I read somewhere that Mr Christie is leaving the PSO ??? I hope not. Someone please advise - thanks very much !!!
David-
No Michael Christie is not leaving TPS. What you read was probably the confusing use of the word, "outgoing" in a recent newspaper article. The paper was using the word 'outgoing' to describe Michael's approachable and charismatic attitude, but the way it was placed in the sentence made it sound as if he was on his way 'out'. This just goes to show you the power of careful adjective placement!
Brendan Anderson
Web Administrator
Thanks for that clarification ...Mr Christie's leadership is refreshing, intelligent and very welcome. I hope we have many future seasons with him at the helm.
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